The Pack

Master David Manning has kindly explained how the beagling is organized and how he is handling and training his pack:

The formalities

In 1999 there was 74 packs of beagles in England and Wales.

Each pack is registered with "The Association of Master of Harriers and Beagles" (AMHB).

The AMHB was formed in 1891 and is the governing body of harehunting. Its purpose is to "Secure the present and future well-being of hare hunting in the United Kingdom by all lawfully and morally acceptable means within its power". All masters belong to it and a committee conducts its day to day business. The AMHB is self govering. It is not a Government body.

If you wanted to start a pack you would have to convince the committee of the AMHB that you have:

- Sufficient interest ie a nucleus of keen people.

- Somewhere to hunt ie a country that is not already registered by antoher pack.

- The agreement of the beagle and harrier packs whose country would be adjacent to yours.

- The agreement of any foxhound packs who would be hunting the same country as you.

- Adequate arrangements to kennel hounds.

Existing Masters are then given the opportunity to support or reject the application. If successful you country is then marked on a master map. You are now a registered pack and can start collecting hounds. Nobody will give you hounds unless you are a registered pack (or are abroad - see later).

The pack

A typical pack will hunt twice a week from September (when the harvest has finished) to late March (when it starts to get too warm). We try do do three days a week in Nov., Ded., Jan & Feb. and so are quite busy. We usually take our 15 couple of hounds. LKess if there are lots and lots of hares. This is because the packs splits ie tries to hunt more than one hare at once and it gets confusing. On some meets there are as many as 10 brace (40) of hares so we would take about 10 couple (20) hounds.

In the kennels we like to have 20 couple of hunting hounds. Most will hunt every single day ie 77 times a season but occasionally they will miss a day as they are tired lame or if a bitch in season. On average each hound will hunt 55-60 days. We have the odd old hound (8 years old) that can only do one day a week plus a small hound that isn't strong anough to do a lot of fast days.

Breeding

Each year we need to breed replacements. Normally we have three litters but in 98 we were very short of hounds se we had 5 litters. The litter size varies from 3 to 8. We like the puppies to be born between January and June. After June they are called late puppies and can be a bit too

For example a puppy born in February 1998 will start hunting in September 1999 i.e. at 18 months old. A puppy born in July 1998 will also start hunting i September 1999 i.e. at 14 month old. The older puppy is fully grown and able to cope with hunting two or three times a week. The younger puppy may struggle and it is important not to dishearten them.

If a hound is too small, too slow, too big or too fast we "draft" them i.e. give them to another registered pack. This is free of charge and it works very well. A pack that hunts on the moor with big stonewalls needs stronger heavier hounds than we do so they will often give us their smaller lighter hounds. That way we can get new bloodlines into our kennels.

Like the foxhounds we can use a stallion hounds from any registered pack and it is free. We register the hounds in the AMHB studbook, which is printed each year. We also keep our own records.

The training

At 10 weeks old we send the puppies out to walk – just like the foxhounds, but beagles get up to more mischief, as they are more intelligent! Being out at walk gives them character, they learn their names and not to chase cats etc. Generally they have lots of fun and are part of the family. Some people have been walking puppies for twenty years or more. By Christmas all the pups are back from walk and we start training them.

A young dog is coupled to an old hound whenever we go for a walk on the roads and it learns by example. A couple is two leather collars each joined to a swivel and then to 20 cm of chain. We only walk out for half an hour in the Season as the old hounds are hunting so much they don’t need a lot of exercise. The rest of the year the training is:

April: 30 mins every morning slow walk.

May & early June: 30 mins in the morning then a walk every other evening say 40 mins. We want the hounds to be relaxed and to see lots of sights – people, cattle, horses etc.

Late June & early July: 30 mins in the morning and every evening building up to 2 hours a night for 3 nights, 2 nights at 40 mins and 2 nights off.

Mid July, August & early September as early June but now we pedal bicycles and the hounds trot along. They should now be getting fit. The pups will be off the couples. We go on a lot of footpaths and cross-country routes.

September to March: 30 mins slow walk to get rid of any stiffness from the hinting to see who is lame and to give them some fresh air.

The Planning

In September and December we published a “meet card” with all the fixtures on it. Before we can do this we liaise with all the shoot and the foxhounds in our “country”, so we are not all at the same place in the same day. Before we meet on a particular day we ask permission from each of the landowners. Typically there are two shoots and twenty-five landowners to contact for each day. David either visits them or rings them to see if we can come or if they have say any in lamb sheep that we are to avoid. In all we have 850 landowners that we contact. All are very welcoming and helpful. As we hunt three days a week it is a lot of organizing.

The sociable part

In late June you arrange the Puppy Show. This is when we say thank you to all the farmers and the puppy walkers. It is like a big garden party at the kennels. This is when all the puppies that are back from walk, but have not yet started hunting are judged and prizes are given to the walkers. We then have a massive tea and Great fun.

Finally we are all volunteers i.e. amateurs and fit all this in around trying to work. The hunt is like a club with many members paying either an annual subscription or a small amount every time they go out. We also have a lot of fund raising events like suppers and raffles.